Monday Post ~ August 29, 2011

by Miranda on August 29, 2011

“When we are writing, or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colors are brighter, sounds clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize.” ~Madeleine L’Engle

What are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic goal or a milestone to reach for. A goal as simple as “I will be creative for 10 minutes every day” or “I will gesso three canvases” is what it’s all about. Share your goal(s) as a comment to this post, and let us know how things went with your creative plans for last week, if you posted to last week’s Monday Post.

Suggestion: When you’re deciding on your creative intentions, it’s a good idea to think about WHEN you’re going to write those 2,000 words or paint that canvas. Try to schedule the time slots in your calendar (if you keep one), understanding that flexibility may be required. If things don’t happen when you wanted them to, that’s OK. Give yourself a gentle push with one hand, but pat yourself kindly on the shoulder with the other if you don’t reach your goal for a given week. Sometimes it’s easier, sometimes it’s harder. Ride whatever you’ve got.

It’s also useful to have a sense of your minimum requirements (come hell or high water I’m going to write 100 words) while keeping a lookout for sudden opportunities to do more. You know, the day that the baby takes a monster nap or your partner takes the kids out to run errands and you find yourself with an unexpected “extra” half hour. Grab that time for yourself. You can catch up on the dishes and the laundry later. If you keep something creative in the back of your mind for those sudden opportunities, you’ll be more likely to use them to your advantage — rather than squandering your precious bonus moments on Facebook or vacuuming out the sofa cushions.

oh goodness, totally forgot to post on monday! crazy as ever, but i managed after getting the boys off to school on tuesday for the first day to get myself to the library while grandma took toots with her.

i did my best chapter edits yet even though i hadn’t opened the manuscript in three weeks with all the mayhem.

2 chapters, totally rewritten and much more evocative of the original intent of the chapters. yay!

oops? things are nuttier than usual…i re-injured my foot, and was chasing doctors and getting toots off to first day of preschool. maybe next week, i’ll get my groove back. lol in he meantime, i got had my writing group today and did a decent amount of editing on a chapter, but i seriously questioned all the changes as i rewrote the whole chapter. i have to wait and look at it again tomorrow.

This weekend I took the oldest back to college, and by Thursday of this week the four others will all be in school again. I can hardly believe it!! So much adjusting to do, not the least of which is continuing to migrate my own schedule so that I’m able to get out of bed at 5:30 every morning. I’m also on a serious raw food kick, which is requiring more time in the kitchen as I experiment to find raw dinner recipes that my kids will actually eat.

Last week I was seized by a fit of organization and overhauled my laundry room (no more drawers of random tools and hardware) and spent many hours weeding the garden in spectacular weather while the kids played nearby. So while I didn’t get a lot of “creative” work done, I feel good about the week overall. Last week’s goals:
* CCA homework [yes]
* Develop project outline for Wednesday’s creative pow-wow mtg [yes]
* Work on newsletter [yes]
* Journaling [not daily]
* Project Life update [partial]
* Make something! [aside from food, no]

Well, right now we haven’t had power since 2:30pm Saturday, so I am at the end of my rope with three kids and 85 degree weather. But, last week’s goals:
Make red velvet cupcakes and four batches of pizza dough for my daughter’s 13th birthday party (DONE)
Movie-themed party favors for the birthday party (OPTED OUT since the teen opposed ;))
Blog post for Studio Mothers (YES)
Blog post for A Hot Piece of Glass (at least one) (NOPE)
Work out a specific design idea for a bead/jewelry exchange (NOPE)
Develop basic outlines for three possible classes (I’ll just keep that on the list…) (HAH, NOPE)

This week, I am making no plans. I am in survival mode and although I realize things could be MUCH worse, I am done with camping unintentionally in my own home. Cross your fingers for me that electricity returns to my area soon.

Last week:
I’m working on a blog and I posted this week. http://artistsvalentine.blogspot.com, so I’d like to write one more entry this week. The last week before school starts is a bit well, you know, so to sum it up my goal is to journal and draw as much as possible, and to write a blog post.

Results- I began a blog on exploring a new yoga series (2nd series of Ashtanga), but my thoughts were not yet evolved enough to publish, so it’s a work in progress. I didn’t journal or draw very much except to make a birthday card for a friend, but that was a fun hour that I would not otherwise have had.
On my creative radar are two books that I would like to work intensively with this year, Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit and another title, “Talent is Overrated.” This is my planning and figuring out year, my last year before my 3rd child goes to kindergarden. I’m trying to define for myself what my goals really are. It comes down to how can I make money for my kid’s college education (not to mention extra-curricular activities and we could use a bigger house in a town with a better school system) while still remaining true to my heart. My twin loves, art and yoga, are not the surest path to financial success. It is so hard to take the leap of believing in myself, and yet that is what I most want to teach my children!
This week I am in the midst of hanging a new exhibit at the library, so my creative goal for the week is to finish that and write the essay to accompany the exhibit. I’ve started it, but I really need to see all the work on the wall before I finish. I wish I had done more research for it than I have, although I was able to do a little research while I was in Vermont at the excellent UVM Burlington library.

Oh I hope school won’t be delayed…we start on Tuesday. So far the plan is for school to be open as scheduled. It’s very frustrating that a mile from my house in all directions power is completely restored, but our neighborhood isn’t. And I live in suburbia, so it’s not like there’s nothing around here. GAH! >:-O

welcome!

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